Learning to Feel Again
by laylaxospot15
Summary: A friend of Jack's, Layla, finds him after years of searching. She'd been hangin round New York for awhile and had found a job in Brooklyn and was lookin for a place to stay...after making enemies with the newcomer, Spot is forced to let her stay with him


Disclaimer: I DO NOT OWN NEWSIES! I just own Layla, that's all! I love the movie! Thank you so much BTTRthnTHErealENDING (Emily) for inspiring me and letting me use some of your story! Listen up folks! She has fantastic stories you gotta read, so look her up! And another thanks goes out to another friend who inspires me, Rachael, whom I can share my newsie love with. Thank you guys so much!

Layla's View:

I worked my way through the Manhattan crowd carrying my potato sack slung over my shoulder. As I passed some street venders, I snatched up a loaf of bread or a cabbage, dried meats, or if I'm lucky, I pass up a pastry vender and swipe some sweets. I always go unnoticed when I go on my stealthy shopping trips, but at times I can attract attention, after all, I'm a fourteen and a half year old young lady running around wearing working boy clothes.

I had heard from Jack Kelly, a long-time friend of mine, and I came to Manhattan, New York to tie up some loose ends in my life, no matter how pitiful a life it was.

I stopped in my tracks when I heard the familiar voice of a newsie. I stood on my tip-toes and scanned the hustle and bustle of the crowd until I saw what I was looking for for nearly five years. I saw a newspaper held high in the air and heard Jack's voice and recognized it from the 14½ years of my life spent growing up with the kid. I stuffed the rest of a honey ham into my sack and pushed my way through the hurrying people towards his voice. When I finally broke out of the crowd, I saw him, waving the banner in the air and shouting out the "revised" headlines. **Same old Jack, thick brown hair, beautiful eyes, cowboy hat on back… nope, hasn't changed a bit**, I thought to myself. I caught him off guard as I ran up and jumped on him from behind, causing both of us to hit the cobblestone ground with me straddled over him.

He looked up at me with a pissed-off look, but that quickly change once he saw my eyes and recognized me. Jack grinned and laughed, my eyes turned green (which is when I'm feeling sentimental, blue when I'm either angry, moody or just pissed, and/or brown when I'm sad or embarrassed… they're sorta a mixture of all three). I bent down and kissed him as he sat up, not a lovey-dovey kiss, we have a brother/sister relationship, so don't be getting no ideas.

"A penny a pape? I'll take one cowboy," I ruffled his hair and helped him up. His mouth

opened and closed as he had a hard time finding the right words, which was unusual for him

"Layla! What er ya doin' hereah in 'hattan'?" he spied my potato sack, "and what er ya doin'?" I scratched my head, searching for an alibi.

"Uhhhhh, I'm… shopping?" he laughed at me and picked me up and twirled me around.

"Nah, same ol' Robin Hood, ya lil troublemaker! Comon, lemme introduce ya to da boys!" I smiled and pulled my hat off, letting my straight brown hair fall past my shoulders. He smiled at me again and he hooked my arm, and walked toward the Manhattan newsie lodging house and caught up with each other. At the same time, while we passed some hoity-toity nice-suit wearing man I pick-pocketed him and got $15.25 richer. Jack punched my arm and we ran before people could see.

He told me about him coming to Manhattan looking for work and found a job as a newsie, his one trip and escape to the Refuge, and how it's poker night over in Brooklyn. I told him about my journey through the states, how I heard whispers of his name from New York, so I came here to find him, I also told him about me finding work in Brooklyn as stable worker for the racetracks but I was having trouble finding a place to stay; and I told him about my **18th** trip **to **and my **18th** escape **from** the Refuge, leaving him in aw for the rest of the walk to the lodging house.

As we entered the bunkroom, the boys immediately looked up at me, some hooted and whistled, but Jack stopped them before it could turn into anything else.

"Hey! Hey! Dis hereahs Layla, or as I'se calls her, Robin Hood! She's a very good friend of mine! Be's polite, er she'll soak ya good!" I liked the way he emphasized "very good friend of mine". He had his hands on my shoulders and held me in front of him like a child at show-and-tell. Jack pointed to some boys and called out they're names. A boy named Racetrack stepped forward.

"Hiya toots, pleased tuh make ya's aquaintance," he extended his hand to me. I grinned and spat on my hand and reached out to meet his. Race looked up to Jack, surprised and unsure, and I could see out of the corner of my eye Jack nodded his head towards me. Race shrugged and spat on his hand then shook mine. I smiled as the rest of the newsies looked at me with curiosity.

"The pleasure is all mine," I looked at him thoughtfully. "Italian, eh?" I leaned in close to his face and whispered in his ear, "**è piacevole per incontrare un ragazzo italiano**." Racetrack blushed deeply and scratched the back of his head and turned to try and hide his burning face.

"'s it hot in hereah, er what?" Race tugged at his shirt and the other boys cat called and a few asked what I had said to him. Jack bent down and whispered in **my** ear, "Whadja tell him?" I turned to Jack and raised my eyebrow and pinched his cheek playfully.

"Just that it's nice to meet an Italian boy. And by the way, thanks for the introduction cowboy," I leaned over and smacked one right on his lips! The boys jumped up and were in a tizzy.

"We'se thought you'se was with Sarah!" they shouted almost in unison. Both eyebrows raised between me and Jack, I looked up at him but he was quieted the boys down.

"No, no, no, no… Robin hereahs my sister… well as close as ya can get ta dat. Sarah's da love of my life, and you'se all know dat!" He turned and smiled to me, I grinned back mischieviously.

"So… Sarah is it now? Did I approve of her? Where's she live? What's she like? Does she have any cute younger brothers for me?" I joked at him while the newsies howled in laughter. Jack was cherry red in the cheeks now and he ran his fingers through his hair. I turned back to the boys, "Hey, anyone up for some poker?"

***

We walked over to Brooklyn together, I chatted with Race, Blink, and Mush while Jack walked ahead. They were all very grateful for my sack of goodies I had given to them back at the lodging house, they split it all and hid it under they're sheets in their bunks. We reached the Brooklyn lodging house just as the sun began to set. I stepped in cautiously, knowing that Brooklyn's dangerous neighborhood, but I had Jack at my side, so none of that mattered. We walked into the smoky bunkroom where a bunch of newsies were already sitting down at a table in the corner of the room. One particular newsie caught my eye, his eyes were almost as icy blue as mine when I get mad, and the look on his face had "I've-Never-Lost-A-Staring-Contest" written all over it.

The table was full of cards and coins and random glasses of liquor which I decided to smash every glass if I got the chance. Jack pulled me up a chair then himself, coincidentally, I sat across from "The Leader", whom Jack had introduced to me as Spot Conlon, King uh Brooklyn. At first he just grinned at Jack's compliment, not looking up, only until he heard Jack introduce me as Robin Hood, his eyes starred up at me after realizing I wasn't a boy. Then he took a few quick glances and adjusted his seat a bit and got back to the game.

For some reason, that Spot guy kept looking up at me, why? 'Cause I'm a girl playing poker with a bunch of boys? Oh, puh-lease. He looked at my boys' clothes and with a slight shake of the head, he looked back at his cards, but when he looked up at my face, I watched out of the corner of my eye as he stopped and stared at me. I turned to face him and crossed my eyes and stuck out my tongue. His blue eyes turned to ice as they flickered with anger.

"Bitch. No goddamn respect," I heard him mutter. I was in a the middle of a conversation with Jack and Race about yours truly, but when I heard him make that little comment, I snapped my head back to him. I could feel my eyes as well turn as icy blue as his quickly. I may have gotten a lot of shit through my years, but I do not take disrespect from some jackass stranger who thinks they could step all over me.

"Excuse me," I said through clenched teeth, I could feel my temper rising. Spot glared up at me, but his glare turned to confusion at my sudden change of eye color from its regular mixture of brown-green to near white-blue. Jack instinctively put his arm across my lap and held me down. He leaned in close to me and whispered to me irritably.

"Robin! Dun even think bout it! Ya dun wanna mess wit him!" I knew all the boys could hear everything we were saying because they'd quieted down to listen.

"Well, he doesn't wanna mess with me either," I hissed in his face.

"Watcha tempah there sweet lips," I saw him smirk and throw a couple coins in the center of the table.

"You asshole!" I gritted my teeth and tried to get up, but Jack held me firmly to my chair. I turned my icy stare to Jack.

"Relax, just poker night, no need fer fightin'. Ya don't need ta get inta any more fights as it is," Jack got me. I sighed and sat back in my chair. The boys looked around at each and Blink poked Jack in the shoulder and looked at me.

"Any more fights?" his one eye questioned me half-jokingly. I only smiled. Mistake. Big mistake. That only made the scar on my bottom lip stick out more. A couple more boys leaned in to see it while Spot watched curiously.

"Whoa! Where'd ya get that suckah?" Race asked blowing smoke in my direction. I shrank down in my chair, I didn't mean to make it stick out. I have thick scars all over me which I can cover with long boys' clothing, only the one on my lip, the one on my neck, and the one that runs down my arm to the knuckle of my middle finger showed. I'm so embarrassed of them, I don't want anyone to see them. And because I had to open my big mouth they noticed those ones as well. _(Stay tuned in and keep reading if you wanna hear her story!)_

"Ooh, and dat one too! On ya neck! See it fellas?" Mush reached for my neck and I nearly tore his head off with one-handed if Jack hadn't of grabbed my arm that had had the freakin' scar on my hand. I jumped to my feet.

"Whewee! And take a look at that one!" Race snatched my wrist and pulled it towards him to get a better look. Whewee is right. That was a bad move on his part as I used that hand to swing around and snatch his cigar from his mouth. His bright brown eyes grew wide as everything in the room turned to slow-motion with boys spewing out questions, staring at me while Jack was yelling at them to shut up, then he looked back at me, so did everyone else.

My eyes burning through each and everyone of them for how they grabbed at my scars, I looked at the cigar. Racetrack looked like he was about to cry, I only grinned at him and took a puff. I blew the smoke in his face and had a sudden vision of my father… and as everyone watched with wide eyes and mouths to match, I plunged the lit end of the cigar into the palm of my hand. No one said anything as the my skin sizzled under the heat. I didn't feel the pain much, I never really do if I get hurt or in a fight, which can be pretty convenient. Everyone was frozen as I finished using my hand as an ashtray, I tossed Race his cigar but it hit him in the face but he didn't break his stare.

"My father used to smoke," I leaned in close to his face. "And I hated him." the last part made me stop with my blue-eyed madness. I'd realized that I had probably ruined their poker night and I felt suddenly stupid for doing so. I felt my eyes slowly turn brown as I looked around at them, they started chatting about and I had the sudden urge to cry out and take everything back, but I didn't, I couldn't. I guess I didn't realize how Jack was standing next to me, looking down at me with worried eyes. I looked down at my palm, it was badly burnt and bleeding with the skin. I'm not crying, I don't cry, not anymore. I gently took the glass of alcohol Jack had in his hand, not knowing exactly what it was. Hoping it was strong enough to clean wounds, I dumped it on my hand. Sting. Damn Jack, definitely strong enough. The look on his face; disappointed as he stared at my hand which was now dripping wet with clear blood.

"I'm sorry," I breathed out and looked up at Race who obviously caught up with Jack's feeling of concern and he stepped up to me. Gentle as ever, he took my hand and looked it over. He turned to Jack and everyone else; making a "sheesh!" face at them. "I'll go clean up. I'm sorry, sweetie, I shouldn't have gone off on you like that," and with that I leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. Even through the smoke, you could see his face almost glow tomato red. The mood in the room lighten the slightest bit as Race cracked a joke and everyone boomed in laughter. I wasn't there to hear it though. I was heading for the bathroom with Jack hot on my tail.


End file.
